1) Hosta Library photos are not to be used without permission, even at reduced size. No exceptions
2) The Hosta Library welcomes commercial users to link to our site, but not to individual pages.
Linking to http://hostalibrary.org/ is appropriate.

I wonder if we could be given permission, just to use on the forum!!

I'm sorry, Bob!!! I guess I thought this way was allowed since I had seen it being done by others!!

How do I get myself in such messes! I should have investigated this more before I jumped on board! Sigh!

Thank you for the tutorial. As far as linking to the HL, we'll see what Bob says. We aren't "commercial users" who are trying to sell hostas or link to the HL website for business purposes, so I'm not sure why he'd be opposed to making a direct link to a HL page for educational purposes.

One other thing- a lot of the photos posted on the HL can be found elsewhere on the Internet, so if you want to actually post a pic on the GardenWeb forum, that's an option (unless the website which you use is copywrited). I usually figure that if someone posts pics on the Internet and doesn't protect them from being copied, they probably don't care too much if they are.

As far as your directions above, you've done a great job in explaining how to make a direct link. The quotation marks, however, are not necessary. In other words, you can insert the URL address without using any quotation marks as follows:

insert name of link here

The only space in the entire line is between the letter "a" and the letters "href".

It's been a long night or rather 'morning' and I've been thinking--a lot! And, I realize that many of us
(me included) have been linking to the 'Library' by specific page, as in we look up the hosta we want
to talk about or display and link it, with the link taking us to a specific alphabetical listing, the 'usual way'
which is below our message!

I'm thinking that even that may be prohibited and that Bob really wants us to ONLY link to the home-page
as in this way: The Hosta Library rather than the way we've been doing it below!

Whaaaa! It was SO MUCH FUN to be able to read along in our messages and then be able to 'click' and see the
specific hosta being discussed so quickly BUT, if that is not what is desired by Bob, so be it and well it
should be respected to be his wishes!! Sniff!

If you read this, Bob, is there ANY way, we can have a special 'dispensation',, to be able to quickly get to
one of your hostas more directly?

Thought I'd ask--JUST IN CASE--it could happen!!! :o/

Here's how I've done it in the past, (maybe wrongly) besides the more recent 'in-message-click':

Oops--I was 'constructing' my post while you were posting, Don! You've done a far more simple and concise
instruction--I'm sure more easily understood by most!!

Thank you, Don, and hopefully, Bob will be able to set us straight about how he wants us to treat his
much loved 'Library'!

I ALWAYS knew we weren't to try and 'copy' a specific photo from his work. I obviously didn't
realize it went so far as to be forbidden to link to a specific page, which displayed the photo!
Go figure--I guess I can be pretty dense! Hey--I was 'blonde' in my youth--far from it now,
but maybe that's the reason I could miss that 'detail'!

I had 'confessed' what I thought was an unintentional indiscretion, last night and I went so far as to ask if he
would grant us permission to make clickables to a specific hosta, via 'properties' info on the specific one
and this is his gracious reply (I underlined and emboldened what I thought was most pertinent to us):

Hi Janice
It doesn't matter how you link when you are on a forum, people just don't want their photos
used on commercial websites. They pay for the photos to be taken in some instances and donate
them to the library and someone else takes them and adds them to their website.

Did you realize that the link you gave above for Bacon and Eggs is not a link to the Bacon and Eggs picture? It is only a link to the "B" page. THe way the HL site is organized, each photo does not show its own URL as it is being viewed.

To get the correct URL to copy, you need to right-click on the picture and select "View Image" (in Firefox, not sure of the IE equivalent). Then, go to the address bar and copy that url for later insertion, like so:

when you link.. its like a cite in a bibliography ... ABSOLUTELY NO PROBLEM WITH CITING A SOURCE ... and that is what we do.. when we link to a website ...

IF you take the words from a book without quotation marks .. and no cite in the biblio .. then YOU ARE USING SOMEONE ELSE'S WORK... without credit ... and in fact.. making money [or a grade] based on someone else's work ...

if we link.. to the library.. full credit is going to the library.. and the listed photographer.. and/or the pic ...

AND!!!! we are not using it FOR PROFIT ....

linking is NOT 'using' .....

copy/pasting ONLY THE PICTURE to your website where you sell that hosta would be 'USING' the pic ....

does that clarify it at all ....

thanks god you arent all lawyers.. but defining the specific word is the basis for a discussion ... and the key word in all this was 'USE' ...